We live in a world full of hate. A world in which I have learned to fear. A world I don’t want to grow up in. A world I don’t want to raise children in.
It seems as though everything I was taught about love and acceptance as a child has been thrown away by every adult who put those very ideas into my head. I was taught to be kind; to be friendly; to accept everyone for who they are, for what they believe in. I was taught that it was good to be different.
As I’ve grown up, I’ve learned that being different isn’t as accepted as I thought it was. I’ve discovered that most people don’t know how to accept what is different from themselves. I’ve seen it firsthand. Every day on the news, there are people dying all over the country, all over the world. People mercilessly murdering others because they’re a different race, a different culture, a different religion. People are being killed because they like a different gender, or the same gender, or all of the above.
We lose sight of what we once learned and before we know it, we absentmindedly begin to hate and we teach our children to do the same. We feel threatened by other people’s differences in opinions and we punish them for it. We hold their own ideas against them. Innocent people lose their lives because they are different.
Why can’t we take what our elementary school teachers taught us and use it? Why is it so hard for people to be kind and friendly? Why is it so hard to accept others for who they are? Why do we hate?
We must once again learn our kindergarten lessons. We must look at our children -- the future -- and learn from them. We must learn from their innocence, their love for others, their ability to accept. We must stop teaching them to hate.
I know the world will never be perfect. I know it is impossible for hate to completely disappear. But why can’t we try to make a change? It starts with us. The smallest differences can make a huge impact and influence a bigger movement. If we stop pointing our fingers at others, maybe things will be different.
We must understand that all this hate doesn’t derive from one person or group of people. Unfortunately, not everything can be prevented. Terrible atrocities such as mass shootings aren’t because of gun laws not being strict enough or our government not taking preventative measures. There are simply some bad people in this world.
This doesn’t mean that we need to point fingers at everybody that has ever existed and try to find someone to blame for what happened. We do nothing but blame everybody and everything around us. It’s time for that to stop.
It’s time for us to stop waiting around for someone else to solve the problem. It’s time for us to stop talking about what needs to be done without actually doing anything about it. It’s time for change.
I am sick and tired of this never-ending war of hatred. The bigger issues will never be solved without a solid foundation of people who believe in change, in love, in acceptance. How will the war against terrorism end if we as Americans can’t get along with one another? How will we ever win a war against hatred when we ourselves hate so often?
We must stand together. We must unite. We are the United States of America and it’s time for us to act like it. We need to accept that people in this country are different and there’s nothing wrong with that. We need to understand that this country is under attack and there will be no end to this war without us standing together and fighting together.
No more blaming of other cultures, other religions, other beliefs, other people. We are the people and we are the root of the problem. We need to stop putting the blame on others and wait for change to happen. We must be the change.
